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Worth checking out

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ive played Vanguard since day 1 and enjoyed it from the beginning.

It had a rough start and lost many customers, but it has come a long way and is currently experiencing a resurgence of players. Performance is literally 100%-300% better for most players, with thousands of bugs squashed and quite a bit of new content.

Its about the only major MMO on the market now that can be considered a bit more 'old school'. If you enjoyed Everquest, this is about the only game out there that has the potential to make give you back a bit of that feeling. The huge open world is a big plus, and there is so much content that you have to play through multiple characters to ever see it all.

Its absolutely worth trying out now that it is ship shape, and there is going to be a free downloadable trial coming out in about 2-3 weeks from this date (august 10, 2008). Check it out!

Not the Vanguard it used to be

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Vanguard SOH had a lot of hype and expectation when it launched. From what I hear, the launch was pretty rough and a lot of people were very dissapointed. The old reviews reflect that.

But the VG that exists today is NOT the same game you played last year!! Sony has been working very hard on fixing things and adding stuff. They just offered a free month to previous account holders, and everyone who came back to try it out remarked on just how improved the game is overall.

If you've never tried VG, this is not your ordinary MMO. Yes, there's plenty of adventuring in a giantic, almost seamless world. 3 huge continents to explore, dungeons galore dot the maps, 16 starting races and 19 starting classes. Graphics are gorgeous and Sony is constantly bringing in improvements (like expanding on the available character creation models).

You can adventure as you would in any MMO, running around exploring, doing quests and killing things. But you can also build your own house on a plot of land of your choice, go sailing the ocean in your own boat, or delve into the spheres of crafting and diplomacy.

VG's comabt is a slight expansion on typical MMO fare. Most moves are cool-down based, but you have the addition of several layers of stances (determing more damage vs. better defense, for example), and specials that are only activated at special times (like in response to a successful dodge). There are also effects that can be triggered by a special (like stunned) that can be utilized by another class's special (if the special is linked to a 'stunned' vulnerability, it gains bonuses). Level cap is currently 50, but there is also end-game raiding available.

But if you're tired of just 'running around killing stuff' (since that's all most MMO's are), there's still so much more to do in VG. When you need a break from the adventuring grind, try out crafting or diplomacy. Unlike most other MMO's, VG crafting requires actual skill and thought, and there's consequence for goofing. All items require basic materials, some utilities (like solvent or glue) and can be enhanced with special dusts to give it bonuses. Various steps in the process can have choices of how to proceed (like choice A giving lots of completion progress, but no quality upgrade; or choice B which gives a little completion and a little quality upgrade; or choice C which gives a lot of quality upgrade, but no completion progress). You have a set number of points you can spend to complete your crafted item, and each step costs points. Run out of points and you're done, even if your item isn't. You just wasted all your materials. Run out of important materials (like a solvent) or have missing equipment and you're done, materials wasted. But crafted items are also quite decent for players in VG (unlike other MMO's where crafting is next to useless) and some things can ONLY be gotten from crafters.

Diplomacy is the third sphere in VG. It is the realm of social persuasion, where you engage in 'parley's with various NPC's to obtain gear, get permission to build a guild hall (only diplomats can get the guild hall plot) or even provide city-wide buffs. Buffs last for 1 hr usually and can be for adventurers (e.g. +to all stats), crafters (+to a crafting skil) and diplomats (add cards to your deck). Diplomacy is played out like an online card game, except that UNlike Legends of Norrath or the other MMO's, VG diplomacy is FREE! Yes, I said FREE! No buying cards online and paying even MORE money to play this game. It's included in the VG game itself.

The best part of all this is that it's YOUR choice how to play. You can level each of the three spheres (adventuring, crafting, diplomacy) completely independant of any of the others. No more required levelling just so you crafters can get that next recipie! If you don't want to go and kill things, you don't have to. Just keep working on your crafting and leave the killing to everyone else. Diplomats also can completely avoid adventuring if they want. But with so many starting classes and races, I'm sure you'll find some class to try the adventuring sphere with too. It's just really nice to have a CHOICE for a change.

And that's really what VG is about: having a choice of how you want to play.

Doesn't suck balls anymore!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's true, this game was launched far too soon and was a bug riddled mess (blame Sigil for imploding).

That was a long time ago, and the game seriously doesn't suck balls anymore (like it arguably did).

There are still bugs and things that needs fixed, but the game is very playable at this point and on par with other MMORPG's out there right now in that they all have bugs and issues and area always going to need constant updating and fixing, it's the nature of the genre.

The performance is much improved, though still has hitching and lag issues (what game doesn't though). The skeleton dev team remaining have done a wonderful job getting the game playable and adding enough polish and content that it's having a rebirth right now and populations are on the rise. The important thing is that the game is finally very playable.

There are three spheres of advancement, all of which you can gain levels:

The classes are unique and fun, and you'll never get stuck with a class that 'sucks' as all the classes are viable and fairly well balanced (more balancing and revamps coming very soon).

The crafting I'm told is amazing, I don't personally craft much, but I know many people that ONLY craft in the game, it's that good.

Diplomacy needs some work, but is fun. It's a sort of mini card game where you argue/discuss with different npcs to gain buffs, learn a lot of lore. It's not for everyone, but you can get a free horse doing it in the early levels, so it's worth trying ;)

Nobody ever doubted the world is beautiful and amazing. It's non-instanced and doesn't have zones to load into (though there are chucks that can make you hitch a bit crossing). There are actual dungeons, with actual other groups and players fighting things, so the world feels alive even with low populations because everyone isn't couped up in one of a hundred different versions of the same instance.

The best thing is the game is dirt cheap right now, and the first month of play is free if you buy the box. As well, in a month or so a free trial is going to be released. If you go to the official website there are also a lot of people giving away free buddy keys that will let you try the game out too. Basically at this point you can try it for free (or less that 20 bucks easily), so why not give it a shot?

It's still not perfect and has it's issues, but it's finally playable and a lot of fun, and even with a skeleton dev team a lot of new content and fixes are in the works.

Vanguard Saga of Heroes

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The first copy I received the CD key was already being used, so I had to send it back for another. The game still has a few bugs, which can be annoying, but its still playable. Overall I was not impressed and I did not want to continue to play after the first free month.

Crap!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game with great hopes and I was greatly disappointed. I'll be short here and say that: 1) I felt like I was playing a game made for a 12-year old. 2) I had to deal with multiple game-killing bugs. But the worst was dealing with SONY Online Entertainment's (SOE) billing department. I hate recurring billing, so I used SOE game cards. I would enter a card's code but my account was never credited. After hassling with SOE's billing department (for God knows how long!) to the point where I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau, they finally fixed my account's problems. To SOE's credit, they were actually quite apologetic about the mix-up but by that time it was too little too late. I ended up giving the game away to a friend along with two unused SOE game cards. To this day, he has never used it.

Awful, awful game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: June 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Besides having a decent graphically enhanced environment (which by the way completely hogs all of your systems memory, leaving your gameplay experience more or less laggy at times) this game disappointed me on many levels.

-Classes no more "advanced" than any other MMORPG. I was told this was a "second generation" of MMO, and that combat would be far more difficult to master. It was the same set-up as every other MMO I've played.

-Horribly buggy, holes in zone floors that make you stuck (which there is a /stuck command, which sends you to a set point, BUT)

-Terrible in-game support: My friend was banned for using the /stuck command to get out of a buggy zone spot. GM claimed he was "manipulating the game" and creating an unfair advantage for using it. A LIFETIME ban. For a command the game creators created. Tried to appeal, with no such luck. Customer support and game masters complete idiots.

Honestly, if you are looking for something that is unlike the norm, I'm still yet to find it. All I know is that this game is pitiful, and I would gladly play something "first generation" like World of Warcraft before considering re-activating my account- ever.

Good game I guess, but takes some work.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game has a ton going for it - but at the same time it has just as much against it in what seem to be needless places.

The game design itself is great - races, classes, abilities, crafting, pace (for the most part) are all great a thought out. And honestly, that's what is important. You should at least try it. But it's the little things, My God, the little things that almost make every time my last time.

Examples:
- the level of graphics (which is one of the most discussed aspects of this game online) isn't where it needs to be. A lot of people say the game looks amazing, even at low-moderate settings. A friend of mine even says that when we're both looking at the same screen in my office. I just don't quite get it. Yes, several aspects of the game look really pretty, but not all of it does, and it really lacks any artistic style. The trees swaying in the wind in the distance looks great - but the merchant tent 10ft in front of me looks like it was carved out of a block of wood and dropped onto a flat piece of green ground. And that kind of contrast just makes the graphics sort of "not look right" to me. And if you need a high end PC to run a game that looks "not quite right" - then it's wrong.

- a small thing here, but a good example: when you go up stairs your screen jumps like you're having a seizure (apparently it is literally taking you up and in on each step) - come on! None of he devs walked up the stairs during testing and realized this was ridiculous??!

- there is a glitch or bug everywhere you turn, on almost a regular basis while questing. An item doesn't drop, a scripted event doesn't happen, interacting takes 3 clicks instead of 1 on a particular step of a quest, or the game just decides to tell you you can't see your enemy even though you now that's not right. Just when everything is going fine, you are reminded that the game was released before it was really finished.

- character model customization allows you to change several things, probably around 60 - 70 sliders. However, only 5 or 6 of them really matter at all. You will spend 45mins playing around with your model - then enter the game and look like everyone else except for 1. Hair style, 2. Hair color, 3. facial hair, 4. facial markings, 5. skin color, and maybe 6. Height and weight if you go extreme. Why they bother letting you tweak the other 50-60 things, rather than giving you at least 15-20 options for those just listed (normally only 4 for the hair things), is beyond me. My point is: if they're going to allow several combinations of character model options, they should be combinations that show up.

But, if that doesn't turn you off - then try it out, because even with all that I keep playing, so something must be right.

Also - when comparing to other MMOs, I would say it's actually up there on the list, despite my complaint-puking I did above.

Addicted to Vanguard

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game has come a long ways since it's inception almost a year ago. Since Sony acquired it, game performance has improved tremendously. It is possible to solo to 50 (although dropped gear and group questing rewards are much better than the soloable gear, as it should be!). Crafting is just difficult enough to feel quite accomplished once you've mastered it. Diplomacy is unique to Vanguard, and offers a sphere of its own that doesn't require crafting or adventuring to enjoy. If you've enjoyed Asheron's Call or Everquest, give Vanguard a shot - it is a lot more polished now.

If you choose to try Vanguard, type /join craft and /join dip while ingame to gain access to the friendliest community I've seen in an MMO. There is no fear of asking questions in this game.

Rough Start, Immense Improvement.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: November 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I AM LEAVING THIS REVIEW HERE TO SHOW WHAT I ONCE THOUGHT TO NOW. THIS GAME IS NOT A PRIORITY FOR SOE IN MY OPINION NOR HAVE THEIR PATCHES BROUGHT NEW, GOOD THINGS; RATHER THEY HAVE MOVED BACKWARDS TAKING AWAY CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION AND CLASS DEFINING DIFFERENCES. THEY OVERPOWER CLASSES LIKE THE DRUIDS AND SHOW NO SIGN OF REALLY LISTENING TO THEIR CUSTOMER BASE. I HAVE CANCELLED AND STRONGLY WARN ANY POTENTIAL BUYERS THAT YOU ARE BUYING AT EXTREME RISK. THIS GAME HAD POTENTIAL BUT IT ISN'T GOING TO MAKE IT IN THE LONG RUN.

I bought this game on release and was amazed at how bad the performance was at the time. I had a standard range computer for the time and I couldn't run the thing effectively even at the lowest settings, which were awful to say the least, so I quit before my free trial month had even expired.

Fast forward to ten months later....

As I waited for a game I would actually enjoy to come out, I re-examined what had already been released out of sheer desperation since Guild Wars was beginning to bore me after I beat the expansion in one week of solid gaming.

I checked them all out again from WoW, to EQ2, to Shadowbane, DAoC, etc. To give you a background on my MMORPG experience I started gaming with Diablo, then Diablo 2 after which I went to EQ1 and absolutely loved it in the late '90s. I moved back to playing Blizzard games for a while with the release of Warcraft III before finally ending up in DAoC where I stayed for years and would still be if they had not completely negated customer service and unbalanced the RvR. I moved on to Guild Wars as a temporary fix until the release of certain games that didn't manage to release and it then became my permanent game as I waited for Warhammer or Age of Conan which I consider the two best options coming out in the future.

Now that said, I am back in Vanguard playing exclusively on the PvP server and I am very impressed at the strides forward they have made since their terrible release.

First of all they have fixed nearly all performance issues that I was having personally. I have an older Pentium 4 processor, 2 gigs of ram, and a 7000 series Nvidia 514MB video card with which I can run the game at the highest settings most of the time. There are areas where you will still encounter some lag such as when you open the doors to structures, when you cross the invisible zone lines known as chunks, and when too many players' avatars appear at once and have to be loaded. They have fixed the worst memory leaks and causes for most of the crashes. All in all I notice no difference in performance or lag in this game when compared to DAoC, WoW, EQ2, and other MMORPGs currently released, but this game is FAR superior in world graphics in my opinion. The developers have already announced more fixes to decrease the performance issues such as decreasing unnecessary bone structures on characters which should decrease loading times and increase framerates etc making PvP more viable for those with lower system specs as well. The future is very bright in this area and the devs are extremely competent in their performance fixes and tweaks so far although they are slow to release said patches. I personally am ok with this as long as progress is made and it is stable when released.

About the graphics, I cannot say enough. It is by far the best part of this game. There are other games out there with good graphics in the MMORPG world, but I think that this one is the best barnone. Even when not set to the highest settings this game is still astounding in its beauty. There are still some cool effects that could be added such as accumulating snow and maybe wind effects, but overall you will not find a more beautiful night sky or better swaying trees. Even the detail of the rocks is outstanding by my estimation and far superior to the cartoon graphics found in WoW and GW.

About PvP options. Let me first clarify that this game was created for PvE. It has a massive landmass with explorable water, mountains, dungeons, cities, and every other kind of landmass you can think of just about. You will be hardpressed to see it all in the first several months you are playing if you don't dedicate insane hours to it; another plus imo. However, if you are like me, Player versus Player combat (PvP) has to be effectively integrated as an option into any game in order for there to be the longevity and capacity to satisfy over the long term. This is the one area this game will need future work on, but don't despair. The PvP server suffices for these things for now. So far PvP is a Free for All (FFA) setup where anyone can be fought and killed anywhere after level 7 and it gets pretty fast and furious too. You may have the invisible Psionicist charm a high level city guard and attack you while never knowing where the Psionicist himself is but knowing that this guard is no regular mob and you will need help to just survive let alone kill him. Or perhaps you run across the ranger, who snipes at you from behind a windmill for incredible bow damage only to switch to dual wielding sword fury when you close the gap. Perhaps you will come across the Shaman who summons pets to serve him or perhaps transforms into a bear and proceeds to tear apart his adversaries healing himself when necessary. The sorcerer may just cook you in two minutes flat or the annoying bard may run circles around you laughing and slowly whittling away your health while she cannot be touched. But be careful for out of no where a great platemail clad Warrior may stride into battle and absorb your damage as though you spat at him before leveling his massive axe upon his target. You will never know the rogue is there until he strikes, and watch out for that plate wearing guy; it isn't another tank (Warrior, Death Knight, Paladin) its a Cleric and he can dish out some serious damage and take it equally well healing all the while. The Necromancer may have recently harvested a dead body and found a unique body part to graft into his abomination to deal out more damage just as he transforms into a lich or wraith and joins the pursuit. Suddenly the whole ground begins to shake and bodies fall around you for the Druid has unleashed an earthquake before the Blood Mage sets his blood to boiling, stopping the druids assualt, and then can begin to help heal the afflicted. But wait, he is intercepted by a huge lesser giant Death Knight who removes his invisibility and shadowsteps to the mage, uttering a word of power and swinging his weapon killing his target instantly. Needless to say, there are options galore for PvP in this game. They just need to balance the classes a bit, which they are actively doing, and they need to add a bit more purpose to it besides just FFA killing. Most player bases these days are crying out for more depth and purpose overall whethere it be defending property that is player built like in Shadowbane, or defending a realm like in DAoC, or castle sieges like one might expect to find in Lineage 2. None of these games has got it completely right yet, but if this game or any other works on this area I think you will see some really good PvP options that will carry the game many years into the future; this game has that potential by my estimation even though it is not there yet.

The downsides to PvP right now are that balance is not where it needs to be yet but they are addressing it. There are definate flavor of the month (FotM) classes like the Shaman, Ranger, and Bard that have unfair advantages in many situations and that simply must be addressed. You won't really notice it much on the PvE servers but you will hate it on PvP when you have to fight those characters and your skills are just not capable of competing against them. PvP deaths don't affect much overall though since the penalty for losing is money, which can be protected by placing it in the bank and not carrying it on you, and infamy points, which function as nothing other than bragging points. This too needs to be addressed as I personally can't stand useless look at me items. I want infamy to serve a purpose of some fashion and until it does I will care very little about it and not consider it an incentive for PvP. You may wonder, well what is the incentive for PvP then? Simple. The rush of adrenaline, the fame, and the ability to uphold certain ideals and exact revenge, honor, and fear amongst the player base. I have seen people who randomnly kill everyone they see and they are sometimes targetted by large guilds and either can't get groups to progress or are killed by nearly everyone since they specialize in making enemies and not friends. That kind of accountability is appealing to me personally.

The population is good, but could be a bit higher since the world is so big. There was a dramatic drop after the games release in this area due to the overall disgust of the general population, but that trend is slowly reversing itself as more old players return and some newer players are drawn in by the good news, rather than constant bad, that is beginning to trickle out. Guilds are a good thing in this game as well since allies and their resources are always a plus in the cutthroat environment this type of PvP provides.

About character creation: There are so many options for characters, classes, and race in this game that you can spend a good hour or more creating the perfect character. There still needs to be more options for character customization I think starting at physical appearance on down to armor and weapon options and class specific effects whether in combat, or casting abilities, but overall there is far more customization in this game than in most others currently out there.

About housing: Its there and the options are decent. There are lots of areas on the actual map to build player housing and guild halls. the houses range from small huts to huge castle-like structures, and the guildhalls are immense. The housing in this game is by far better than anything ever created. It takes what Ultima Online had, expands on it, and makes it 3D. These structures can be built to mirror the different styles of the continents which are European (Thestra), Asian (Kojani), and African/Middle Eastern (Qualia). You can store items in these houses, decorate them, port to them, and even fight around them if you are on PvP. There are also the boats, also customizable and designed after the continents, that you can sail around the vast world in.

About crafting: You can't talk about housing without mentioning crafting. This game has the most elaborate and interesting crafting system I have seen yet. It begins with harvesting the materials yourself. That might mean cutting down trees, skinning animals you have killed, harvesting stone or gems, reaping grass, etc. After you refine these materials you can take work orders or create what you want through the use of various tables and tools where you mix items in a process to maximize quality etc. There will be complications that arise that require you to react in certain ways and have certain additional materials on hand to deal with them. The trick is you can only have so many things on your table at one time and you can't change these materials once the crafting process is begun. This means that an experienced crafter can predict what he/she may need and ultimately make a higher quality item than is normal. It is not your standard click a button after buying some materials and wait longer, and longer periods to make gear. Needless to say crafters get rich and fast, like in most games, since there items are easily some of the best in the game.

Next is the diplomacy system: It is a card game played against the computer basically and the cards are collectable and tradeable if you don't equip them yourself. Diplomacy will first and foremost give you an alternative thing to do in the game. Secondly it will yield lots and lots of money over time. Thirdly, it will generate city wide buffs to increase everything from crafting attributes, to adventuring ones like hitpoints etc. And finally, it is used to help in the creation of castle like guild halls etc. There are lots of nice rewards from this system such as NPC mercenaries, mages, and merchants that you can summon to serve you at will for a period of time. There are shapeshifting items that drop as well, special diplomatic armor pieces you can create from rewards you receive, and lately even talk about special diplomatic housing. There is also the benefit of excellent lore to read here if you love stories, legends, plots, and intrigue. The system is currently being examined to give it more purpose in the overall world such as possible PvE encounters being advanced or made easier when a high level diplomat is present to do his or her thing; they have already done this with certain high level raid content. There are more ideas being thrown around for diplomacy as well and the talk is good. This is the only game that has ever tried and implemented something like this and I consider it one of their strongpoints.

About content: Currently there is a lot to do at the max level, but there needs to be more and the devs know it. I must point out that compared to the release the amount of quests and active areas to do things in has dramatically increased with each continent offering different quests lines, different themes of loot and armor/weapon drops, and of course different types of monsters to fight. That said high level players still claim to run out of things to do at this point. Very soon they will release what they are calling raid content in the Ancient Port Warehouse. (**This has already been released since this review was posted**) This area is intended for high level players in large groups in a PvE environment. There are still areas where the types of mobs feel a bit monotonous or where there is not anything to do at all. However, you will sometimes see things that are obviously meant to be something but that havn't been fully implemented yet. It is at times like these that you realize the game still isn't fully finished according to what the devs had planned, but it does not feel like a beta version anymore either.

There are flying mounts in the game (although not personal ones yet)(**Permanent personal flying mounts have been announced for the next major game update since this review was posted.**) and abilities like levitate that allow you to climb mountains and soar very high above the world while still seeing it in great detail below you. It takes what people hoped to see in Dark and Light and actually makes it work in this arena and again is an amazing testament to the beautiful world these guys have created.

Character graphics, armor, etc are also still lacking a bit imo. The characters themselves are nice looking and can be customized quite a bit although they need to put in more options eventually. It is the armor and weaponry that is kind of boring in my estimation. What's there doesn't look bad, but it is not flashy enough and there is not enough variety. Furthermore you cannot dye armor at this point, at least as far as I can tell, so your character won't always look as unique as you may desire. They have also not implemented helm art into the game yet, why I do not know, but it is on the list for future development. The only head covering you can get is through a cloak and that looks odd to say the least. All in all what they have is nice enough, but it needs more work. That said I remember how games like DAoC were when they released and they were awful for different armor and weapon options along with facial and body customization. They came out of it later on though and with each expansion they added more flash and flair. I expect the same thing to happen here.

As for population, the PvE servers are doing quite well and the PvP server isn't too far behind them although it is much lower in population. That again is because PvP is not what this game was created for though I think.

So to sum this up. If you want a huge, incredibly scenic world to explore with tons of options for class, race, character etc and liked the Everquest 1 ideas then head over to this game. If you like PvP come to the PvP server. At the very least this game is a great tide-me-over until other titles are released if you are bored senseless like I was. But be aware you may find you like this game more than you expected and those titles will fall on the backburner! Enjoy and I hope these opinions help in your decisions for this game.

So close...yet so far. Still a lot of promise.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got into this game during beta, I've been playing it since launch. I watched Sigil fall apart and SOE jump in. The game development is handled so poorly it's getting ridiculous.

Set yourself free is the slogan, the image is an adventurer soaring high in the sky wherever he wants to go. Not gonna happen for you in game. STILL, you can only fly on rentals for a couple minutes. They don't even work very well either, they will poof and cause you to fall to your death. Pretty annoying when you PAY for it, then have to run back and buy another one. Don't forget that you need to go find your corpse where it dropped you. Perhaps some day they can fix this and add in the quest for flying mounts. They already finished the quests on their end, but they haven't been added yet.

Guild halls were just barely added, but they require more work than anyone imagined. That's fine though, I appreciate the hard core side of it. WoW is pathetic, any step away from WoW is good. The problem is the over camped quest items you need that nobody can get without spawn camping on the hour. Not only do you have all the guilds from 4 different servers trying to get them (they had to have a server merge because the population is dying), you have the jerks camping them to sell them. It's not hardcore, it's lame. They admit this and are gonna fix it...it's fixed on their end. They've said it's been fixed on their end for a month now yet we still don;t have it live yet. See a trend?

They promised so many things and they couldn't deliver at launch. That was fine with me, you create a beast of a game you deserve a little slack and extra time in my book. Sigil tried to push updates in quickly and just broke the game further, now SOE takes forever to do ANYTHING. I'm still paying for this game because I enjoy my guild mates, but I don't know how much longer I can allow the poor development to drag it's feet and charge me money. I understand the mess they had to clean up and how much time is needed, but it's getting to be too much effort for the reward.

The 3 spheres don't work very well with each other. Adventuring and Crafting have the relationship you'd expect, but Diplomacy has been downright pointless since launch. They decided to make diplomacy finally worth it by making the guild hall construction require top tier diplomats. That just created a rush of mad grinders and players botting their way up. They are supposed to be needed in raiding whenever they actually add that. The diplo and craft grinds can really split up a guild if you are not careful.

This game still has a lot of promise and could be something some day but they need to start getting things done quicker. They are losing their fanbase the longer they take to get this to what it should have been at release. This game will eventually need PVP introduced to PVE servers, they talked about putting PVP on PVE servers but it's never happened thanks to the PVP being terrible on the PVP servers and everything else being a cluster-fudge.

I am very down on this game right now, but it has it's redeeming qualities still. It has unique classes and plenty of customization for now, most of my guild mates play their characters uniquely. I have had more fun with my Disciple than I have ever had playing another class in any other mmo. There are less complex classes like Sorcerer, but Rogues and Disciples are by far my favorite because of their complexity.

Plenty of quests, this game has a lot to do at most levels. I have seen official reviews bashing some of the quests because they were poorly written, but those have been re-worked. There was a lot of typos in the beginning. I have always enjoyed the quests, they even have some adult humor in the game that is not so obvious as other games. This game has a lack of lore behind it, but it has amazing lore buried down in the much ignored diplomacy quests. I thought the Kurashasa (cat race) initial diplomacy quests were great and as I traveled they still kept my interest.

They didn't want portals in this game, but they were forced to add them because of how buggy the game was. The boats would drop players in the water and the game would crash, they could not leave it like that with how large the world is. The game doesn't crash anymore, the boats don't drop you anymore, but the portals have stayed. They caved. That bothered me, but I can get over it. There is still plenty of hard core left in this game.

Crafting is respectable, it is very deep like SWG had. It is perhaps the longest grind in the game. It's complexity is GREAT! The rare items you need for great crafted items are GREAT! However, the way you level is by doing work orders for NPCs. Boooooooooooooooring. They needed to mix it up here, it's insane doing the amount of work orders needed. I know, I did them for 50 levels. They have introduced rest xp and lowered the xp curve so it's much easier now. I don't know exactly how it is now because they did this after I got to the top tier, but guildies have said it's better now.

Plenty of positives and negatives with this game, sadly the positives are overshadowed by things like no flying mounts, no helmets, no tails on animal races, no raiding, no decent pvp etc. The good news is that they have done a lot with the performance issues this game has had.

The community is better than WoW and EQ2, reminds me of the old SWG crowd. Sadly the majority is busy complaining, but when they are playing the game and focused they are great people.

I can't really recommend this game right now, but I hope you do come check it out. I don't see any other decent mmorpgs coming out. Most everything these days are WoW clones. This game was built with the right idea, huge world with tons of customization. Details, depth, freedom. SOE has been slow, but they have tried to stick with that original plan. I have hope still.

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